Despite some very tempting offers from French clubs, Thom signed a new two-year deal with Glasgow Warriors in May 2008.

"The offers were tempting in one sense, but we never really swayed towards them," Thom explained. "The money can throw you because it really is staggering the amounts the French clubs can offer now.

"But taking everything into account – going to a new place, possibly learning French, being away from the national coaches who can come to you and give you advice on what you have to work on – I felt I was not happy to move. As tempting as the offers were in terms of money it didn't make up for everything else.

"The money got sillier as I went back and pretty much told them I was going to stay. They tried to sway me but my mind was made up. A lot of people say money isn't everything, and it genuinely isn't at the moment. We still have long careers ahead of us and we wanted to do what we thought was best for both of us."

Thom's season included playing for the national side, against New Zealand in the Autumn Internationals and in the RBS Six Nations, where he scored a try against France in Paris.

Thom joined Glasgow in 2006 from Wasps. During that season, Thom was selected to represent Scotland in the Sevens squad, playing in Wellington and the USA. He also got capped for Scotland A, and was selected for the Churchill Cup squad. This led to his inclusion on the 38-man national training squad for the RWC.

Thom turned his back on music and boy-band stardom to concentrate on rugby and joins Glasgow Warriors from London Wasps. Thom has represented England at U16, U18 and U21 level.

He had a breakthrough season in 2004/2005 following an impressive performance against the Stormers in his first XV debut, with his first Premiership appearance against Worcester in April. He also received an invitation from England Seven Coach Mike Friday to play in the 'Samurai' Development Seven in Amsterdam after a starring performance during the Floodlit Sevens at Rosslyn Park with the A Team Seven.

Thom comes from a strong sporting family as his mother, Sally Evans, was the 100M provincial champion for Durban Province in South Africa. His father, Brian Evans was a professional golfer who won a few opens on the European tour. Brother Max has just signed a new contract with the Glasgow Warriors, and replaced Thom in the Sevens squad.

Thom also displayed talent in other sports as he was an England Schools sprinter. With his background in athletics, it should come as no surprise that he considers sprinter Maurice Green his sports hero. However, when it comes to rugby inspiration, he points to Christian Cullen and aspires for his game to be more like that of the New Zealand legend. Gareth Rees also played a large role in his development as a player as the Forwards Coach for Thom's U16 team.

Although Thom moved into the Academy from Wellington College, he has travelled down some very unique roads in his life outside of rugby. It's quite easy for Thom to say that if he were not playing rugby, he would be a rock star because 'at least for a while' he already was. He and his group, Twen2y 4 se7en, were beginning to draw some rather large crowds by the time that he made the make or break decision to leave a music career behind and focus on rugby full-time.

Thom admits, however, that he still wants to be a pin-up with his face on every wall and he's still known to break out some moves on the dance floor. He also enjoys playing golf, seeing films, and listening to music.